The Tribe App is the brain-child of a Munich-based start up. It aims to help users make informed consumption choices and incentivise environmental action through challenges. I helped the Tribe team to refine and test their product concept through user research and creating a prototype and MVP.
Most of us are dismayed by climate change and its effects. We want to do something. Yet many of our daily actions and choices (or lack thereof) contribute to keeping emissions levels high. How do we help people translate their good intentions into sustainable habits?
Tribe's founders believe that 'You cannot stop Climate Change alone. You need a Tribe'. In other words, the hypothesis behind the App is that a virtual space where people come together around a shared concern for the environment will help create and maintain more sustainable habits. Because members will inspire, motivate and hold each other accountable. And so the Tribe will grow...
Before starting the exploration phase, we found it helpful to clarify our hypotheses.
A Competitive Analysis revealed a handful of Apps with a similar goal to Tribe, all of which show limited levels of activity. This is clearly going to be an issue we will need to content with. We also discovered that the two main competitors developed corporate versions of their App. The business model for white labelling such a platform is clear, but we decided to keep exploring the feasibility of an open platform, with revenue linked to challenge and content sponsors.
Other relevant issues highlighted by the competitive analysis were the mix between Apps focussing exclusively on challenges and those also providing basic 'educational' content on sustainability; and different options for logging actions: through posts, which requires the users to do more' work', or merely as a buzz.
Drawing from these insights, we set some enquiry foci for our exploratory phase:
User Interviews focused on current patterns, aspirations and challenges in relation to CO2-conscious behaviours; what helps people develop and maintain new habits; attitudes towards digital tools and what counts as an attractive incentive.
The insights emerging from user interviews challenged some of the team's hypotheses:
This showed us that we should:
The interviews pushed us to rethink some of our assumptions, but also confirmed a fundamental alignment between Tribe's business goals and some user goals.
Conversations with users also helped us to prioritise App features.
The initial Product Goals, informed by our interviews were:
Accordingly, we designed the App Architecture to revolve around the core sections of: Information for a more sustainable lifestyle (including theTip of the Day), Challenges and an Individual Dashboard. Plus, of course, a Homepage, which brings together key content and individual activity, and a More section with additional information on Tribe and the App.
A brainstorming about brand qualities with the Tribe team surfaced consistency in the key attributes.
We created a very simple Style Guide and a Logo to capture the brand qualities.
We aligned our designs with our product goals and aimed t0 create an experience where...
We tested the inVision prototype in one to one conversations
Usability tests on the prototype prompted improvements in the onboarding process to make the Tribe concept clear from the very beginning, and some tweaks to the Challenge page design, to provide more information at a glance.
We also created an MVP prototype of the App using GlideApps to test basic challenge functions with a group of users over time.
The prototype and MVP will help us to continue testing our hypotheses about the product and our users' preferences, as well as support the outreach towards investors and clients.
Drop me a line at fcignola@gmail.com
